Episode summary
Wall Street Week | Rattner on Manufacturing, US Public Buses, Milan’s Boom, AI & The Future of Work
Wall Street Week
· · Hosts: Chrystia Freeland, David Westin · Guests: Steve Rattner
Summary
Steve Rattner argues that President Trump’s tariff strategy has not yet revived U.S. manufacturing output or employment. He says output has still been drifting down, that tariffs can protect some young industries, but that using them as a permanent policy or as leverage to force foreign firms to build in the U.S. has not shown clear results. On autos, he says tariffs and anti-EV policy have created a “speed bump” for the industry, while the real policy target should be future-oriented sectors like chips rather than legacy supply chains.
The discussion then shifts to the economics of public buses, where the guest says America is paying far too much because agencies buy highly customized buses in small batches under rules that limit competition, including Buy American restrictions. He argues standardization, pooled procurement, and lower federal purchasing caps could cut costs dramatically, while still preserving domestic assembly and manufacturing jobs.
Finally, the episode visits Milan’s booming high-end economy and then turns to AI and work. Rattner says Milan’s draw is a mix of tax policy, stability, finance, and lifestyle, while David Autor and Erik Brynjolfsson argue that AI’s biggest risk is not machines versus humans, but how the gains are distributed. They favor policies like wage insurance and broader capital ownership over universal basic income.
Key takeaways
- Steve Rattner says Trump’s policies have not yet reversed the long decline in U.S. manufacturing output or jobs.
- Rattner argues tariffs can nurture specific industries, but they are a poor tool for permanently restoring broad manufacturing competitiveness.
- The bus segment says U.S. transit agencies overpay because they order bespoke vehicles in small lots and face rules that suppress competition.
- The guests say pooled procurement and standardized specifications could lower bus costs materially without abandoning U.S. assembly.
- Autor and Brynjolfsson say AI is likely to boost productivity, but the central risk is that gains concentrate in fewer hands.
- They favor wage insurance and broader ownership of capital over universal basic income as responses to AI disruption.
Notable quotes
“-No, I don't think you could say that. Manufacturing output had been declining, actually, quite steadily going back to even before Trump”
“-We can bring back some of it. Even Alexander Hamilton advocated for tariffs under a different set of circumstances”
“the future of American public transit should have a lot of buses in it. We're just paying way, way too much for our buses”
“I'm worried that we're not going to do it in a way that create widely shared prosperity”
How the episode opens
Westin: This is "Wall Street Week. I'm David Westin, bringing you stories of capitalism. Americans take 3.8 billion rides on public buses every year.
Could we pay less and get more? Plus, the Winter Olympics have the rich and famous traveling to Milan. But it turns out that many of them are already there, drawn by the tax rates and la dolce vita.
And AI isn't a matter of people vs. machine. It's really people vs.
people. We hear from David Autor of Harvard and Erik Brynjolfsson of Stanford. But we begin with that manufacturing renaissance that President Trump promised us.
Are his policies starting to deliver? And what would it take for him to get his wish? Steven Rattner spent years focused on the plight of American manufacturing while overseeing the auto bailout for President Obama.
He runs Willett Advisors, which manages the personal and philanthropic assets of Michael Bloomberg, our founder and majority shareholder. President Trump campaigned on returning manufacturing growth to the United States. And the White House, I looked this up, says that they are surging forward with unprecedented momentum.
Are they? -No, I don't think you could say that. Manufacturing output had been declining, actually, quite steadily going back to even before Trump.
It did go up in January, but that's one month, and I don't think we can draw any conclusions from that. But essentially, our manufacturing continues to go down. And for the most part, manufacturing employment goes down.
Productivity has been bouncing around a bit. We can talk about that. But no, there's no...
not yet. And to be fair to the President, I think you have to say, not yet any sign that his policies have changed the trajectory of manufacturing in the United States. Westin: Some of the challenge may be timing.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- us manufacturing
- tariffs and trade policy
- public transit procurement
- milan olympics migration
- ai and the future of work
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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